I recently found Boyd Lydick's memorials on findagrave.com for Uriah & Mary Ann (Lydick) Harris. They are my gg-grandparents - I descend from their son Samuel Harris. The memorial listed Uriah's middle name as Binnegar - interesting as that was the maiden name of his mother. Being the sort who always hopes to find supporting documentation for this type of information, I contacted Boyd.
Unfortunately, Boyd said he knows he would not have arbitrarily recorded Binnegar as Uriah's middle name, but he is unable to locate any place where he recorded the source at the time. That's a problem that happens often to genealogists, especially when it's something from their early days of research. And yes, it has happened to me too ... I sometimes run across something and wonder, "so where did I get that piece of info?" and then have to hope that I'll run across it again in the future. Moral of the story: always record your source for all of your research.
While Boyd and I were trading emails, he found a post on GenForum by Bobby Rawls who refers to his gg-grandparents as Sheridan Uriah Harris and Mary Ann Lydick. Same Uriah (married to Mary Ann Lydick) -- so could this be Uriah’s full name instead? Possibly …
Uriah & Mary Ann had a son whose name appears as Uriah Sheridan on his death certificate and as Uriah S. on the 1870 & 1900 censuses. I believe the son was commonly known by his middle name, which I’ve seen spelled as Sheridan, Sherwood and Sherrard. I’ve also seen the son’s name as Sheridan U. which had once led me to believe that Uriah may have been his middle name in honor of his father.
If Bobby is correct that the father was Sheridan Uriah (commonly known by his middle name, Uriah) ... and if my thinking is correct that the son was Uriah Sheridan (commonly known by his middle name, Sheridan) ... then that ranks near the top of the list of most convoluted things I've ever seen!
So what is the real full name of this man known as Uriah Harris? If you have any input, I'd love to hear from you!
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